Snipers of the Soviet Union

Snipers of the Soviet Union played an important role mainly on the Eastern Front of World War II, apart from other preceding and subsequent conflicts.

In World War II, Soviet snipers used the 7.62×54mmR rifle cartridge with light, heavy, armour-piercing (B-30), armour-piercing-incendiary (B-32), zeroing-and-incendiary (P3), and tracer bullets.

Most Soviet World War II snipers carried a combat load of 120 rifle cartridges in the field.

[1] During World War II, 428,335 individuals, including partisans, are believed to have received Red Army sniper training, and of those 9,534 obtained higher-level qualifications.

They do so because the long-range engagement ability was lost to ordinary troops when submachine guns (which are optimized for close-range, rapid-fire combat) were adopted.

[9] In 1931, the Red Army adopted the 7.62mm Mosin sniper rifle with a PE optical sight (7,62-мм снайперская винтовка обр.

Due to several problems, including accuracy issues and muzzle flash, as well as being complex and slow to manufacture, production ceased in October 1941, and work began on developing the PU version of the Mosin–Nagant.

In 1942 the Red Army adopted the 7.62mm Mosin sniper rifle with a PU optical sight (7,62-мм снайперская винтовка обр.

c оптическим прицелом ПУ на кронштейне Д. М. Кочетова) as the standard sniper rifle[12] Later, the Red Army acquired a small number of AVS-36, which were converted into self-loading sniper rifles with PE optical sights (АВС-36 с оптическим прицелом ПЕ обр.